Leeham News and Analysis
There's more to real news than a news release.
Leeham News and Analysis
- Bjorn’s Corner: Air Transport’s route to 2050. Part 21. May 9, 2025
- Does an A220-500 need a new wing and engines? Part 2. May 8, 2025
- Embraer downplays tariff impact on 2025 results May 6, 2025
- JetZero readies effort for private equity fund raising May 5, 2025
- Bjorn’s Corner: Air Transport’s route to 2050. Part 20. May 2, 2025
Boeing’s secrets
Evening Magazine, a 30-minute feature program by KING5 TV (NBC-Seattle) aired two segments November 4 about Boeing. The first is called “Boeing’s Secrets,” a feature about places, things or companies that the ordinary Joe doesn’t ordinarily know about (catchy phrase, there, eh?). The second is about Boeing’s Aircraft Psychology (no jokes or cracks, now–this is an upbeat and interesting segment). Both are about 2 1/2 minutes.
Both videos are on the KING5 website, precluding inserting them here.
Here is the Boeing’s Secrets video.
Here is the Boeing’s Aircraft Psychology video.
Updating the KC-X competition
Update: The Mobile Press Register has this story saying that the USAF won’t include the WTO dispute in the KC-X competition because WTO rules prohibit doing so while the case is pending–something we’ve been telling the doggone politicians since they started their campaign to include it.
Original Post:
While the drama over the 787 Line 2 siting dominated the news last week, there was some stuff happening on the KC-X tanker front.
Boeing released this video about its tanker program. Note that KC-767 is shown with winglets, which in airline service are improving fuel burn by more than 4%.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYIY2I3jQdE]
787 Line 2 Post Mortem
The Background
It had been a long time coming. Boeing’s 787 repeated delays and great backlog meant that the company had to have a second production line to catch up and to offer delivery positions within reasonable time periods for new customers.
Observers and analysts long predicted that Boeing would put Line 2 in the growing 787 facility in Charleston (SC) rather than Everett (WA). By now, all the signs are well known to Boeing followers and need not be recounted here.
Polling on Boeing
With the siting of 787 Line 2 in Charleston, we’ve created several polls to gauge opinion. These are unscientific, to be sure: anyone can vote, as opposed to a specified cross-section of respondents. But we think the results will be interesting nonetheless.
The polls are after the jump.
How SC won the Boeing deal
This 5-page story (when printed out) picked up by several SC newspapers tells how Boeing selected Charleston for Line 2 and it paints a very different picture than the one in the previous post of the Everett Herald story.
One key item that will be of interest to Washington officials: Boeing held last minute negotiations with SC for an incentive package while keeping Washington in the dark, maintaining that incentives were an issue.
The Seattle Times’ Sunday (Nov. 1) edition has the following special reports, totaling 10 pages when printed out:
Boeing talks a sham: newspaper
Update: Boeing spokesman Tim Healy provided this response to us when we asked about the article:
“We were utterly serious about reaching an agreement. And we told the IAM quite precisely what we needed from them and when.”
Original Post:
The Everett Herald has this stunning story that virtually confirms the IAM’s allegations that talks with Boeing over siting 787 Line 2 were a sham.
US Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), Boeing’s biggest supporter in the Senate, was aware of the situation and tried to persuade Boeing to choose Everett, according to the story–which explains why she issued a statement after Boeing’s decision to select Charleston to not blame the union.
Here is the story from The Herald:
Dueling Messages: Boeing vs IAM
The spin wars continue. Earlier today Boeing issued a message to employees explaining, from its perspective, why a deal with the IAM could not be reached.
A few hours later, the IAM 751 responded. We have both after the jump. The Boeing message is first because it was issued first, followed by the IAM note.
787 Line 2 aftermath
Update, Oct. 30: We’ll be posting our post mortem Monday, Nov. 2.
This isn’t the post mortem we’re working on but there is a lot of traffic to this site today, obviously looking for some thoughts, so here are a few rapid-fire ones:
- Boeing says it didn’t go into the labor negotiations with a preconceived decision. But we think if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck. We always felt Line 2 was Charleston’s to “lose,” so to speak, and that Everett was a very, very long shot.
Wake up call? C’mon
The Seattle Times called Boeing’s decision to locate 787 Line 2 in Charleston a “wake up call.” So did a few others.
C’mon. Boeing has been leaving Puget Sound (Seattle) for decades, step-by-step. We predicted in April Line 2 would locate in Charleston. How many times does Puget Sound have to wake up?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yJBhzMWJCc]
In other news: Northrop hints at exiting KC-X competition
We were waiting for this: see this story.